Girodet

This weekend I went to Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal to see the opening of the Girodet exhibit. Lucky for me, this is a 2 minute walk from the school of music.

I have never been into the romantic painters but Girodet's work is impressive, clear and exact. This guy is most famous for doing portraits of the napoleonic family but I could tell his heart was in his more fantastic paintings.


After looking at a few dozen gigantic paintings of nekid figures from antiquity, I had one of my long standing artistic theories confirmed. The flattering idealism of the romantic painters didn't disappear. ( I often hear people lament the fact that artists today can't paint like the great masters of the 19th century) This style lives on in fantasy illustrations. I know it does because Anybody who has ever seen a fantasy comic book cover will tell you, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell could have won the prix de Rome had they lived in the the first half of the 19th century.

After looking at all those Greek gods pouring water out of shells I am happier than ever that the masses don't dictate the progression of art history. For all of you who can't get enough people pouring water on stuff and hugging dead people, there will always be the U of M poster sale.